Duma urges UN to probe bio labs in Ukraine

MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma has adopted an address to the United Nations to investigate the functioning of biological laboratories in Ukraine.

"The State Duma deputies are addressing the United Nations and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to demand that the functioning of biological laboratories in Ukraine be investigated without delay," the address published on the State Duma's online database says.

"If the facts are proven, this would mean a gross violation by the United States and Ukraine of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction," it said.

The address will also be forwarded to President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government, the Russian Civic Chamber, the Collective Security Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and other organizations.